With over 1 billion users, here’s how YouTube can be keeping pace with change

via the advent of cinema along with television to the introduction of video tapes, DVDs along with streaming, the way we consume visual content can be constantly evolving.

Today, many of us will watch videos on mobile devices, computers along with smart TVs. Alongside websites such as Vimeo along with Dailymotion, YouTube has played a central role inside the increasing popularity of streamed content.

Things have changed a lot for YouTube since its first video, “Me at the zoo,” was uploaded in April 2005. Bought by Google for $1.65 billion in 2006, the video-sharing site currently boasts more than 1 billion users who watch a staggering 1 billion hours of video every day.

Ben McOwen Wilson, YouTube EMEA’s regional director, highlighted the scale of today’s operation. “We currently have over 500 hours of fresh content uploaded onto the platform every minute,” he said in an interview broadcast Tuesday.

via videos of cats doing comical things to uploads of political protests along with cookery tutorials, the content on YouTube can be diverse, both in terms of subject matter along with length.

“YouTube began in of which short-form viral video space along with of which remains a huge portion of viewership on our platform today, yet at the same time we have content of which can be 40, 60, 0 minutes long along with can be getting significant viewership,” McOwen Wilson said.

With many people currently watching videos on mobiles rather than on desktops, one area of growth for YouTube may come as a surprise. “The fastest growing platform on YouTube overall can be what we would likely call the living room, pitching to TV screens, along with of which has grown over 100 percent year-over-year in each of the last three years,” McOwen Wilson said.

As the way people view content alterations along with becomes increasingly diverse, YouTube has looked to tweak the way its inner workings operate, with engagement becoming an incredibly important metric.

“Four years ago, we made the shift creating sure of which our algorithm rewards watch time,” McOwen Wilson said. “So of which’s not about whether you click on of which thumbnail, yet actually the amount of time you spend watching of which video… If somebody has pressed play along with they are watching of which piece of content to its full, full length, then in our algorithms of which will rise to the top.”

At the opposite end of the scale, McOwen Wilson said of which if a user presses play along with then clicks away via a video because of which’s not what they anticipated to see, or of which isn’t to their taste, then of which will drop down to the bottom of the algorithm.